James Risen

D - F

On 14 June 2000, the U.S. Senate confirmed Gen.
John Gordon, currently CIA deputy director, as the first administrator
of the new National Nuclear Security Administration. The previously stalled
confirmation came amid furor over "news of the disappearance of two
computer hard drives containing nuclear secrets from a vault at Los Alamos....

"Six managers at Los Alamos have been placed
on a paid leave of absence as a result of the latest security lapse, including
the head of nuclear weapons programs, Stephen M. Younger, the highest-ranking
official in the group. Among the others placed on leave ... was the head
of the government's Nuclear Emergency Search Team, or NEST, which is responsible
for responding to nuclear accidents and nuclear-related terrorist threats....
The missing hard drives belonged to the NEST."

Four former CIA employees, fired because of their involvement in an unauthorized chat network on the CIA's computer system, have said that "the agency treated them far too harshly for what they considered a harmless social activity." For earlier reporting, see Vernon Loeb, "Chat Room Causes Trouble for CIA Employees," Washington Post, 12 Nov. 2000, A10; and Vernon Loeb, "CIA Shuts Chat Room, Fires 4, Suspends 10," Washington Post, 1 Dec. 2000, A2. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]

Intelligence estimates declassified by the CIA for a conference being held at Texas A&M University on the role that U.S. intelligence played in the final days of the Cold War show that CIA analysts "were deeply pessimistic about the chances of success for President Mikhail Gorbachev's efforts to reform the Soviet Union's Communist system."

Clark comment: Risen carefully does not verify the thrust of the documents, merely noting that the estimates "provide insight into an enduring debate over whether the C.I.A. really 'missed' the collapse of the Soviet Union, as critics charge." Having had access to many of the estimates on
the Soviet Union in the late 1980s (up to June 1990), I have remained convinced
that much of the chest pounding (including that by Senator Moynihan) about
the CIA's analysis was either misplaced, malicious, or uninformed. Were
the analysts cautious? Absolutely! To have been otherwise would have been
the height of folly.

[Analysis/Sov/Nov99; GenPostwar/CW/End]

Risen, James.
"Employee of U.S. Contractor Accused of Conspiracy
to Spy." New York Times, 25 Aug. 2001. [http://www.nytimes.com]

"Vowing to assert his direct control over the government's fiercely independent nuclear weapons laboratories, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on [11 May 1999] announced a wide-ranging program to strengthen security after allegations that China has repeatedly pried nuclear secrets out of the labs."

Dissatisfied with a DOE review that he "believed did not hold enough senior officials at Energy Department headquarters accountable for the blunders in the Los Alamos spy case," Secretary Bill Richardson "has ordered a new investigation" by the department's inspector general. Richardson will "delay any reprimands" until he sees the results of the new investigation.

On 6 July 2001, in Federal District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, Robert P. Hanssen pleaded guilty to charges that he had
spied for Moscow since 1985. "In return for his guilty plea, the government
agreed not to seek the death penalty.... Hanssen, who is 57, will be sentenced
to life without parole, and he has agreed to undergo extensive debriefings
by officials from the F.B.I. and other agencies to discuss the extent of
his espionage.... As part of the agreement, the government will let Mr.
Hanssen's wife ... receive the survivor's portion of his F.B.I. pension,
and retain ownership of their home in the Washington suburb of Vienna,
Va."

Douglas F. Groat was indicted on 3 April 1998
on espionage and extortion charges. The CIA fired Groat in 1996 after a
16-year career. Groat worked for the Agency's Science and Technology Directorate's
"top secret 'black bag' unit that breaks into foreign embassies to
steal code books." The story gives considerable background detail
on the Groat case.

Former DCI John M. Deutch recommended then-CIA
Executive Director Nora Slatkin "for a management job at Citibank
even as she was monitoring an internal investigation into evidence that
he had mishandled classified information, according to agency records and
interviews with officials."

"Former C.I.A. officer Jack Platt" believes
that "his onetime adversary turned friend and business partner, a
former major in the K.G.B. named Gennady Vasilenko," was betrayed
to the KGB by Robert Philip Hanssen rather than Aldrich Ames.

On 16 May 2001, a federal grand jury in Alexandria,
Virginia, returned a 21-count indictment against Robert P. Hanssen on charges
of spying for Moscow for more than 15 years. The indictment came after
negotiations over a possible plea agreement broke down over prosecutors'
refusal to negotiate a deal that would spare Hanssen the death penalty.

According to the House select committee report,
"Johnny Chung, a Chinese-American at the heart of the campaign finance
controversy, was given $300,000 by two Chinese military officials in an
apparent effort to establish one of them, [a Lieutenant Colonel in the
Chinese Army and] the daughter of a Chinese general, in the United States
so she could acquire American technology."